Junk e-mail: dying days?

If you have an e-mail address, you’re familiar with the routine. You check your e-mail, and along with the cheery notes from the usual suspects (friends, relatives, business associates), there’s a badly written script, trying to sell you on a new service that will make you rich beyond your wildest dreams!

Junk e-mail, also known as "spam" is an annoyance, and at worst, a mailbox-filling nightmare that can jeopardize your e-mail service.


Governments around the world are trying to control it with legislation. But the results so far have been minimal at best. A new study on "permission-based" e-mail may inadvertently provide the best solution to unwanted e-mail.

Pemission based
Permission-based e-mail was defined as e-mail recipients had asked to receive. According to a recent study of online buyers’ attitudes and behaviours by FloNetwork Inc., companies must focus more on personalizing the content of their e-mail messages to reflect the preferences of each individual customer.


This is seen as a prerequisite for a consumer rating of "good" on permission-based e-mail.


In the survey, online buyers were asked whamakes for a good permission-based e-mail. Overwhelmingly, 58 per cent of all online consumers said that the best permission-based e-mails are targeted to their individual interests.


A typical survey response sums it up: "I like e-mail to speak to my point of interest, and not try to divert me to other subjects." –Married female, 55+, new Internet user.


Targeting message to consumer


This research shows online marketers that targeting the right message to each individual customer can have a much more significant, positive impact on their sales.

As a result, any company that wants to successfully promote its wares through e-mail will only send you information that you have agreed to receive on topics that will likely be of interest to you.


Once more and more companies adopt this pinpoint (as opposed to "shotgun") marketing strategy, the number of unwanted e-mails in your mailbox is likely to plunge.